Lawson (store) facts for kids
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Lawson's headquarters at Gate City Ōsaki in Ōsaki, Tokyo
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Native name
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株式会社ローソン
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Romanized name
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Kabushiki gaisha Rōson |
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| Traded as | TYO: 2651 (delisted on July 24, 2024) |
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 1939 in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio 1975 in Tokyo, Japan |
| Founder | James "J.J." Lawson |
| Defunct | 1985 (in the United States; stores sold to Dairy Mart and most of them are now Circle K stores) |
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Japan
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Number of locations
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18,052 (July 2021) |
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Area served
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Key people
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Sadanobu Takemasu (President) |
| Owner | Mitsubishi Corporation (50%) KDDI (50%) |
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Number of employees
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4,470 (non-consolidated, 2017) |
Lawson, Inc. is a popular chain of convenience stores found mostly in Asia. It started in the United States but is now a Japanese company. Lawson's main office is in Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan.
Contents
The Story of Lawson Stores
How Lawson Began in Ohio
In 1939, a dairy owner named James "J.J." Lawson opened a small store. He wanted to sell milk from his dairy farm in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. This small store grew into a chain of many stores, mostly in Ohio.
Lawson's stores were very common in Ohio from the 1960s to the mid-1980s. They sold everyday items like milk, bread, and eggs. They also had special items like "chipped" ham and sour cream potato chip dips. Some stores also opened in nearby states like Pennsylvania.
In 1959, a company called Consolidated Foods bought Lawson. Later, in 1985, Consolidated Foods changed its name to Sara Lee. Around that time, the Lawson stores in the U.S. were sold to another convenience store chain called Dairy Mart.
Dairy Mart changed the names of the Lawson stores. In 2002, a Canadian company called Alimentation Couche-Tard bought Dairy Mart. Most of these stores then became Circle K stores. Even after the name change, many customers still wanted Lawson's famous chip dip. So, it continued to be sold in the new Circle K stores.
Today, Circle K is still a big presence in Ohio. This is partly because of the history of Lawson's stores there.
Lawson's Growth in Japan
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In 1974, Lawson made a deal with a Japanese retail company called The Daiei, Inc. This led to the first Lawson stores opening in Japan. The very first Japanese Lawson store opened in June 1975 in Osaka. In 2001, Mitsubishi Corporation became the main owner of Lawson Japan.
Lawson is now one of the largest convenience store chains in Japan. It is very popular, just like 7-Eleven and FamilyMart. You can find many things at a Lawson store in Japan. These include magazines, video games, manga, soft drinks, onigiri (rice balls), and bento (lunch boxes).
Lawson often works with other companies for special promotions. For example, they have partnered with video games like Dynasty Warriors 7 and Ingress. They even remodeled a store to look like an "Owson" store from the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure manga series.
Lawson has over 11,384 stores across all 47 prefectures of Japan. They also have stores in other countries like China, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and the United States. In 2014, Lawson announced plans to open stores specially designed for older customers.
In September 2014, Lawson bought another Japanese chain called Seijo Ishii Co. In October 2016, Lawson teamed up with The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ. This allowed Lawson stores to offer more banking services, like cash withdrawals and transfers. In February 2017, Lawson became a part of Mitsubishi Corp.
In 2005, Lawson started "Lawson 100" stores. At these stores, most items cost 100 yen plus tax. In July 2024, Lawson was removed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. This happened after KDDI took over the company.
Lawson's Green Efforts
Lawson is working to be more environmentally friendly. In June 2012, the company announced plans to put solar panels on 2,000 of its stores in Japan. Each store's solar panels were estimated to produce about 11,000 kWh of electricity each year.
A small part of this electricity was used by the store itself. The rest of the electricity was sold back to the power grid. This plan helped Lawson earn money and also supported clean energy. Lawson chose solar panels from Solar Frontier for this project.
Lawson Around the World
Lawson in China
Lawson has more than 5,200 stores in China. These stores are located in and around major cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Chongqing. The Shanghai area has the most Lawson stores, with over 2,000 locations.
Lawson in Indonesia
In August 2011, Lawson opened its first store in Jakarta, Indonesia. In Indonesia, Lawson is operated by PT Lancar Wiguna Sejahtera. This company was a part of Alfamidi, which is a subsidiary of Alfamart. In May 2025, Alfamart fully acquired Lawson's operating company in Indonesia.
Lawson in the United States
Lawson returned to the U.S. market in July 2012. They opened two stores in Honolulu, Hawaii. One store is in the Sheraton Waikiki hotel, and the other is in the Moana Hotel. Lawson plans to open more stores in Hawaii and other parts of the U.S. in the future.
Lawson in Thailand
In 2013, Lawson started opening stores in Thailand. These stores are called Lawson 108. They are a partnership between Lawson Japan and a large Thai company called Saha Group.
Lawson in the Philippines
Lawson Asia Pacific and Puregold Price Club worked together to open Lawson stores in the Philippines. Their first store opened in Manila on March 30, 2015. Lawson provided its knowledge about convenience stores, and Puregold helped with getting products and understanding local customers.
Puregold later sold its share in the partnership in 2018. However, Lawson stores in the Philippines continued to operate. In 2019, Lawson partnered with Ayala Corporation. They plan to expand and have 500 stores in the country by 2024. They are also looking into working with Ayala's online shopping business.
See also
In Spanish: Lawson para niños
- Loppi (ticketing system)
